Communicate with clarity

A photo blog post today - a few beautiful things I saw, smelt, tasted, touched or heard in the last few weeks.

I saw....... a fascinating cabinet of curiosities at Te Papa Tongerawa, Museum of New Zealand, one of the best museums in the world. There are rows of these little cabinets of treasures but just two here. The first one is a collection of sewing items and the second one is toys.

It made me feel rather 'old' that the toys my sisters and I played with are now museum exhibits!

I smelt..... the beach. The beautiful, beautiful beach at Plimmerton, the wind, the salt, the sand.

I tasted..... spicy chickpeas with strawberries, beans and parmesan at Pickle, a truly amazing 'eating house & bar'. Absolutely the best meal I've had in years, think of tapas style (lots of small dishes) but with unique and delicious flavors invented by the chef-owner. I loved the chickpeas so much I've tried to reinvent them at home with pear and morroccan spices, not quite the same but pretty tasty anyway!

I touched.... harakeke, New Zealand Flax, both the plant in the wild and its fibres once its stripped by hand with a shell or a stripping machine. Stripping it by hand with a shell was wonderful to watch. All in the name of research for a book in the works!

I heard....this exquisite poetry as song by Regina Skeptor. This song "All the rowboats" is truly exquisite, no other word for it. Musically haunting and the lyrics will appeal to anyone who loves art galleries and museums. Worth watching the official music video on youtube. I love it, instantly and enduringly love it.